Steadiness will all the time be the first speaking level with regards to on-line multiplayer video games. There’s by no means a silver-bullet answer: somebody someplace goes to hate that 0.1% nerf, or that 10% buff. Valorant is a sport that is seen myriad OP characters come and go: bear in mind Chamber on launch, and even the unique model of Jett. One of the crucial irritating Brokers to cope with, nonetheless, has all the time been Neon. Give her a Bucky or a Choose and away she goes, tearing down anybody in her path and planting the Spike earlier than you even know she’s on-site. She’s all the time been a menace, however in 2026, she’s been completely disgusting.
The problem with Neon is, maybe unsurprisingly, her uncooked pace. Utilizing her Excessive Gear she will be able to zip throughout the map, along with her slide permitting her to duck out of hurt’s method, whereas her Quick Lane partitions obscure her. Then there’s the bunny hopping. With Neon’s Excessive Gear, she was in a position to bhop across the map popping heads with ease. 2026 has been a tough one for non-Neon enjoyers like me.
Following a quick interval on the bench, the Filipina Duelist has (fortunately) been hit with the nerf hammer; Excessive Gear’s soar pace now matches each different Agent’s, and her gas gauge can solely be replenished when she scores kills along with her final. She’s taken a bit of little bit of a tumble down the Valorant tier checklist in consequence, changed by the ever-dominant Clove, however typically, these modifications have been for the higher.
On the bottom at Valorant Masters London – the place Neon had a choose price of simply 32% in comparison with 45% in Santiago – I requested Lead Agent Designer Dan ‘penguin’ Hardison and Brokers & Dwell Product Supervisor Tiffy ‘TiffyMunchsnax’ Tsay concerning the Neon saga, and in the event that they’re pleased with the place she’s landed.
“Balancing Neon is certainly difficult,” Hardison says. “I feel Duelists are a few of our tougher characters to steadiness as a result of our inner expectation for them is that they that go ahead, take area, and take dangers for his or her crew. That may clearly include challenges, and over time as we have steadiness the sport, we have discovered that getting gamers to maneuver off of Jett and Raze – the mobility Duelists that may fly over setups or take area actually shortly – is basically difficult.”
Patch 8.11 marked the crew’s “first experimental design swing to get characters who’re grounded to take area in the identical, efficient methods.” Stated replace was accompanied by the controversial Neon and Iso buffs, with Hardison admitting that there have been some “tuning challenges on account of these modifications” however notes that he believes “[the game] ended up in a good spot.”
“The latest modifications for Neon had been principally what we name sport health-oriented modifications; it wasn’t strictly like we simply needed a bar graph of Neon’s energy to go down,” he continues. “We needed to enhance the ‘taking part in in opposition to’ expertise for Neon’s opponents. The speculation was that she might take an excessive amount of area with out expending skills or having to make use of related instruments in comparison with different characters due to her bunnyhopping whereas sprinting.
“That was the change we ended up making, and I feel we have performed a good job curbing a few of her energy. She’s nonetheless actually, actually highly effective, however we have seen a way more unfold out set out Duelists at this match up to now, so from my lens I feel the modifications had been profitable within the brief time period. We’ll should see if she crops again up, however on the whole, each time we do a game-health-oriented checklist and it appears to curb some participant frustration and make the ecosystem extra various, we think about {that a} win on the dev aspect.”
Tsay agrees, noting that it is all about “what’s the proper solution to have the participant taking part in as a Duelist, but in addition give the gamers taking part in in opposition to it an affordable expectation. That is the place we thought the brand new gas system with Neon could be one of the best swing of it for now.” She stresses that the crew would not need to hamper Neon’s “expressive motion,” however acknowledges that the bunnyhopping wanted a “hit.”
Whereas Neon’s reign of terror is considerably over, she’s an Agent that’ll all the time both really feel utterly damaged, or utterly ineffective. It is a balancing dance that I do not envy, however for now at the very least I am simply glad she’s not obliterating me a minute into the spherical.
